LOS ANGELES — A $20 million federal grant will help improve a trucking bottleneck at the nation’s busiest port, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a visit to the Port of Los Angeles Wednesday.
The grant from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 will fund the construction of a four-lane, rail-roadway grade separation to improve truck access to a container terminal support facility on Terminal Island, at the center of the San Pedro Bay Port Complex.
Improving access to the 80-acre marine terminal support facility, which was repurposed last year to store chassis and empty containers, is an example of the government’s investment in shoring up supply chains battered by COVID-19 and other woes in recent years, Buttigieg said during a news conference aboard the USS Iowa.
“There's more to do to fix the supply chains that were torn up by the pandemic and to make them more resilient for the American economy for years to come,” the transportation secretary said.
Truck access to the support facility — a central location serving all Los Angeles and Long Beach port terminals — is impeded by several heavily used rail tracks that surround the site and a tunnel with low vertical clearance.
The project would build a bridge over the tracks, connecting trucks to the highway system in two directions, officials say.
The supply chain implications are significant. The improvements could trim 2,500 truck-hour delays daily, removing 1,200 truck miles traveled per day and 3,000 metric tons of emissions per year, said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka.
“This project will improve truck access, speed up the movement of goods, reduce emissions and increase safety for all motorists,” Seroka said.
The grant comes from the federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity discretionary grant program, which provides planning and capital investments supporting roads, bridges, rail, ports and intermodal transportation. The program received a surge in funding from last year’s infrastructure law.
In addition to the federal grant, one-third of the project’s funding will come from local dollars, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said during the news conference.
“This grant will mean less traffic and less pollution,” Garcetti said. “It will mean more jobs will mean quicker throughput and fewer accidents.”
